With Brandon Presley’s announcement that he will run for governor this year, the stage is set for what should be one of the more entertaining, and perhaps, competitive governor’s race in years, pitting incumbent Republican Tate Reeves against Presley the Democrat, provided, of course, Reeves beats back another challenge from Bill Waller Jr., who lost to Reeves by eight points in the 2019 Republican primary.
The differences between Reeves and Presley are stark. Both will run well-funded campaigns that will allow each candidate to expose the vulnerabilities of the other.
In 2019, the expected toss-up election between Reeves and Democrat Jim Hood fizzled into a comfortable Reeves’ win. Hood, who as attorney general at the time and the only Democrat holding statewide office, ran a lackluster, dispirited campaign, losing to Reeves by 5 points. Even so, it was the closest governor’s election in 20 years. Reeves significantly underperformed Donald Trump who won the state by 17 points, three years earlier.
But if you want to know the real difference between Reeves and Presley, it’s worth noting something that transpired within a few months of each other in 1988.
The past here should inform the present.
In May 2018, Presley, serving as the chairman for the Mississippi Public Service, eviscerated Mississippi Power during a hearing where the South Mississippi utility company was seeking a 4.6 percent rate hike for its 186,000 customers.
Before his arrival on the PSC in 2008, the three-member PSC was generally a rubber stamp committee for the utility companies it is supposed to regulate. The tail had always wagged the dog.
So when Presley drilled down on Mississippi Power’s rate increase, it seemed to catch the utility’s representative flat-footed.
How, Presley wanted to know, did the utility justify asking its 186,000 ratepayers for $3.3 million in corporate jet costs? The utility’s parent firm, the Southern Company, owns four Learjet aircraft based in Birmingham, Ala. and Atlanta for the use of executives from all of its subsidiaries. Mississippi Power’s attorney weakly argued that the trips were all on behalf of its customers. Presley likened the company’s private jets as “an air force.”
A few months later, Mississippi Power quietly removed the $3.3 million from its request.
Meanwhile, in July of 2018 The Clarion-Ledger reported that Reeves, then the Lt. Governor, had used his office to exert pressure on the Mississippi Department of Transportation to elevate a road project that would include building a frontage road from his home in a gated community in Flowood to Lakeland Drive, a main route to metro Jackson.
The story led to an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, which produced a 43-page report that said Reeves’ staff exerted inappropriate pressure on MDOT to fast-track the project. Hood said no legal action would be pursued by his office because the project was never started.
Reeves said the report was a political stunt by his election opponent. Hood said the report spoke for itself. Republican Lynn Fitch is now the Attorney General. That report is no longer available on the AG’s website.
During the months to come, there will be claims and counter-claims lodged by both campaigns.
But if you want some idea of how each candidate uses the power he wields, those few months in 2018 paint distinctively different points of view.
One of these candidates demonstrated an effort to represent the people’s interest.
The other was in it for himself and his wealthy neighbors.
This is just one example. There are many more that illustrate the distinctions between the two.
Keep that in mind as the campaign proceeds.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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